Installing debian on a PogoPlug Pro.

Hi,

On a whim I brought one of these Pogoplug Pro devices from a ebay trusted seller sale, 19 bucks. I thought it would be neat to have a extra server that took up little power around adding to one netbook I had already setup as a server. I never set up debian for a Pogoplug before and I was looking around to see if there was a newer kernel, I found this: http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=6193#p34858 How do I get this into a debian setup? Does this newer kernel support the built in wifi? I'm a bit lost how to get debian running on this Pogoplug Pro I got. The Pogoplug Pro has a FCC ID: VUIPOGOPLUG From what I understand you can boot off a sata port or from usb, I rather have usb boot setup on a 16gb usb stick I have sitting around.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2013 10:50AM by ShapeShifter499.

http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6336

Or, you can try this (if you're satisfied with Squeeze, and that this does not have working wifi out of the box):

http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-debian-squeeze-on-pogoplug-v3-oxnas-cleanly

Worked for me, although I did a couple of things differently running on a Ubuntu install rather than a live. It helps to have the big picture when you are unpacking and first creating the filesystem. Once you get into the qemu part, it goes well. In a couple of cases, you have to create the directories before the commands work. I can't remember all the details, but you can ask here if needed.

Note that this starts with the Arch linux for Pogo V3 with the older 2.6.x kernel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2013 02:15PM by mikeh49.

Ok so I had arch running at some point but I tried flashing over the newer U-Boot and kernel found here http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=36159 I think it worked but I think I also messed up the boot settings, the usb and nand will not boot. I ordered a serial cable, hooked everything up and got the following below when the device was booting, same exact thing when my arch usb is plugged in. Can someone help? I really like to have the latest wheezy installed and running on this pogoplug.

U-Boot SPL 2013.07-g8cefee1 (Dec 02 2013 - 19:03:02)
  Boot device: NAND
Attempting to set PLLA to 800 MHz ...
  plla_ctrl0 : 0000030a
  plla_ctrl1 : 00400000
  plla_ctrl2 : 007f0068
  plla_ctrl3 : 00000193

PLLA Set


U-Boot 2013.07-g8cefee1 (Dec 02 2013 - 19:03:02) for OXNAS

DRAM:  128 MiB
NAND:  128 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   mii0
switch to net console

In case anyone is wondering, this is my pogoplug boot arguments below, some of which came from this poster's uboot environment. http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=36540#p36540 These still didn't worked on my device.

U-Boot 2013.07-g8cefee1 (Dec 02 2013 - 19:03:02) for OXNAS

DRAM:  128 MiB
NAND:  128 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   mii0
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
OX820 # print
autoload=no
baudrate=115200
bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/nfs rootwait rw nfsroot=192.168.2.175:/targetfs
bootargs_usb=console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/sda1 rootwait noinitrd mac_adr=0x00,0x30,0xe0,0x00,0x00,0x01 mem=128M poweroutage=yes
bootcmd=run bootcmd_usb
bootcmd_usb=setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/sda1 rootwait noinitrd mac_adr=0x00,0x30,0xe0,0x00,0x00,0x01 mem=128M poweroutage=yes
bootdelay=3
bootfile=uImage
console=console=ttyS0,115200n8
ethact=mii0
ethaddr=00:25:31:01:66:5F
filesize=15e710
ipaddr=192.168.0.100
keypressed=1
mtdids=nand0=41000000.nand
mtdparts=mtdparts=41000000.nand:14m(boot),-(data)
netcon=echo switch to net console;setenv stderr nc;setenv stdin nc;setenv stdout nc;echo switch to net console
preboot=run safeboot
safeboot=setexpr.b keypressed '*44200005' '&' 1;if test $keypressed = 0;then run netcon;fi
serialcon=echo switch to serial console;setenv stderr serial;setenv stdin serial;setenv stdout serial;echo switch to serial console
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
updboot=bootp;tftp 60000000 u-boot.img;ide write 60000000 400 400

Environment size: 1156/131067 bytes
OX820 #

Curriously trying to set this command

setenv bootcmd_usb setenv bootargs $bootargs_usb ; sleep 3; usb start; ext2load usb 0:1 0x60500000 /boot/uImage; bootm 0x60500000

seems to make my pogoplug try to load kernel from my previously working usb thumb drive. As soon as I paste that command in and hit enter I get the following output below and my usb thumb drive lights up. Note I have yet to update the arch drive with the latest kernel uImage, should I do this before running that command again?

OX820 # setenv bootcmd_usb setenv bootargs $bootargs_usb ; sleep 3; usb start; ext2load usb 0:1 0x60500000 /boot/uImage; bootm 0x60500000
(Re)start USB...
USB0:   USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus 0 for devices... 3 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found
1435408 bytes read in 244 ms (5.6 MiB/s)
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 60500000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-2.6.32-5-kirkwood
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    1435344 Bytes = 1.4 MiB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...


U-Boot SPL 2013.07-g8cefee1 (Dec 02 2013 - 19:03:02)
  Boot device: NAND
Attempting to set PLLA to 800 MHz ...
  plla_ctrl0 : 0000030a
  plla_ctrl1 : 00400000
  plla_ctrl2 : 007f0068
  plla_ctrl3 : 00000193

PLLA Set


U-Boot 2013.07-g8cefee1 (Dec 02 2013 - 19:03:02) for OXNAS

DRAM:  128 MiB
NAND:  128 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   mii0
switch to net console

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2013 06:33AM by ShapeShifter499.

And that is curious how?
You set the command. Then I guess that no bootcmd was set before and autoload is enabled. That could probably explain why your Pogo then runs that bootcmd_usb. I don't know what you did besides that.

The main point is:
You try to load a kernel compiled for kirkwood devices (look at the output you posted) and that leads to a reboot. Simple as that. Get the right kernel in the right location and it should work. This is no big mystery. ;-)

SUCCESS!!! I had uploaded the uImage to my usb device and that didn't work, found out after analyzing the kernel panic that kept poping up in the serial window that the "root" wasn't set correctly. After doing this with a debian root fs I found here I now have a debian system running! It's only squeeze but I'm going to try updating that later. I have new issues though, when using the "fw_printenv" and "fw_setenv" I get the following error: "Warning: Bad CRC, using default environment" How do I fix this? or can I safely ignore this? I noticed a uInitrd file in the /boot folder when I went to overwrite the uImage. I know that the uImage has the kernel but what does uInitrd have and do I need it? Also I didn't get the green light when fully booted, is that because the newer kernel doesn't support it?